Re: [boost] deleting smart pointer

Subject: Re: [boost] deleting smart pointer
From: pavel (paul.cpprules_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-03-19 06:33:22

 Jeffrey wrote on Saturday, March 19, 2011 at 0:25:08:
>> no offence but is my english really so bad that almost noone can
>> understand what i am talking about?
> I don't think so.

thanks for that

> If you're adamant about doing this, why don't you just use a delete_ (or,
> maybe better spelled, release or reset or delete_or_reset) free function
> that's overloaded both for raw pointers and for smart pointers?  I'm not
> convinced you have a legitimate use case to begin with, but under the
> assumption that you do, this seems like a better resolution than playing
> games with the smart_ptr interface...

because if we had an alternative of 'delete_(p)' or the like and
'p.reset()' the latter is definitely preferable

but 'delete p' form imho is more natural than both of the above

eventually peter dimov gave a strong reason regarding smart_ptr:

 Peter wrote on Saturday, March 19, 2011 at 0:41:23:
> There is a specific compile-fail test in shared_ptr for 'delete p'. The
> reason that you typically need this to be a compile-time error is that when
> transitioning a large code base from raw pointers to shared_ptr you usually
> want the compiler to point these out to you so that you can decide what to
> do with them. 

which i agree with in this particular case but not in the general case
regarding smart pointers

though it is merely a technical aspect of porting sources

ideally when you set the pointer type to be a smart pointer in
an existing source code (which worked correctly) nothing should change

-- 
Pavel
P.S.
if you notice a grammar mistake or weird phrasing in my message
please point it out